Former college softball star and aspiring dentist fatally shot while driving over highway bridge in Iowa

Micalla Rettinger was fatally shot early Sunday. (Obtained by New York Daily News)

A beloved 25-year-old former college softball star and aspiring dentist was fatally shot as she drove over a highway bridge in northeast Iowa early Sunday, according to authorities.

Micalla Rettinger was heading toward Waterloo at about 2:30 a.m. when a bullet penetrated the driver’s window, according to police. Rettinger was struck in the neck, but was somehow able to drive to the nearest exit, where she died from her injuries, according to TV station KWWL.

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“It seems so out of the ordinary and so random and senseless that I can’t even get my mind around it,” dad Steven Rettinger told the Des Moines Register.

A 32-year-old male passenger was struck in the face by the same bullet that hit Rettinger, according to KWWL. He was hospitalized, and a third person in the vehicle was not injured.

“There is nothing to indicate the victims in this case were in anyway involved in any activity that would have caused them to be targeted in this manner,” cops said in a statement.

Rettinger was a standout outfielder for the University of Northern Iowa softball team before graduating in 2016, earning second-team Missouri Valley All-Conference honors her last two seasons.

“KK was a pretty special kid to us,” softball coach Ryan Jacobs said. “I can still see the smile on her face and I remember the way she always thought of other people first in a genuine way. When we had youth camps, she was the one that all of the kids on campus would be drawn to. This is a huge loss to our team and everyone that knew her.”

Micalla grew up in Kansas and was an all-state high school softball player in Missouri. Her father told the Register that she had likely just picked up her boyfriend from his bartending job when she was killed.

“(The world) lost a good-hearted person, who was a good citizen, and they probably lost a person who would have become a damn good dentist,” he told the newspaper. “She was very committed (to becoming a dentist). At the same time, she found time for her friends and family and making the world a better place.”

Authorities are offering a $7,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with information should contact the Waterloo police at (319) 291-4340 Option 7.